Mayoral candidates get their Irish on

Who knew so many candidates for mayor had Irish roots? At Thursday night’s candidate debate at the United Irish Cultural Center they were all but crooning, ”Danny Boy.”

Bevan Dufty introduced himself as “Bevan DOYLE Dufty,” and there was Michela DRISCOLL Alioto-Pier (her grandfather was former supervisor Michael Driscoll). Tony Hall, who held his victory party at the Center in 2001 when he was elected to the Board of Supervisors, already had plenty of ethnic cred, but cited his Irish-born wife and father for good measure.

C.W. Nevius San Francisco Chronicle

This is why we send professional photographers to events. However, this is from the debate and those tiny figures at the top are candidates.

Even Board of Supervisors President David Chiu got into the act, introducing himself as, “David O’Chiu.”

And good luck with that.

The debate, hosted by the Irish American Democratic Club, was mostly free of verbal fireworks, although there was a difference of opinion when the panel was asked about a column by Chronicle editorial page editor John Diaz. Diaz wrote that campaign web sites were filled with “platitudes and soft-focus solutions,” and suggested that ranked-choice voting was making everyone wary of taking a stand.

City Attorney Dennis Herrera turned it around, blaming “a decided lack of coverage by the Chronicle.”

Dufty, however, reminded the room “that the role of the press is not to make us comfortable, it is to tweak us a bit.”

But for most unexpected endorsement, we nominate Supervisor John Avalos.

“For once I think the Chronicle is right,” he said. “Candidates are running campaigns that conceal our differences rather than reveal them.”

The zinger of the evening came from feisty venture capitalist Joanna Rees. After Chiu began an answer by saying he was the only one on the panel who had started a small business, Rees pounced.

“I also have started small businesses,” she said to Chiu. “But they started small and grew big. Maybe yours just stayed small.”